My husband has recently come clean and admitted he has a serious gambling problem which has led to tens of thousands of pounds of debt. He is now seeking help via GamCare and GA. Which is good.
However he is feeling very sorry for himself right now and is strugglying to know how he is ever going to fill the void left by gambling. Since he was a boy weekends have been about horse racing, until the 'stop' happened this week he would bet daily on racing on-line (although his biggest downfall has been on-line roulette) . He has owned race horses and although he has other hobbies rcing has alwasy been his thing. He is devasted to think that this can be no more.
How do gamblers fill that void?
Hi Shanlea,
Thanks for your post, and well done for using our Forum.
I’ll echo what you said: that it’s a good thing your husband has admitted to his gambling problem now, and is ready to accept help from us and GA. That’s a big step he has taken given that he’s been gambling since he was a boy, but then, it’s a step in right direction. As both of you might have realised, gambling problem gets worse if you don’t do anything about it, and it can easily get out of control.
There’s no straight forward answer to your question; the void will always be there to experience. What he can do to help himself from that situation is to replace that gambling time/ space with other activities/ hobbies to distract him from horse racing/ gambling.
Once he contacts our free phone Helpline on: 08008 8020 133, any of our advisers will advise him on helpful strategies to enable him to overcome his problematic gambling. We can also refer him to 12 sessions of free counselling if that would help him to stop.
I’m encouraging both of you to try and stay in touch with us so we’ll be able to offer you further help in case you need it.
Keep reading from here, and also keep posting.
Kind regards,
Beatrice
There's a thread on this subject by GT in the Overcoming Problem Gambling section.
BW,
CW
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